J.S. "Sage" Hawthorne

#WritersCoffeeClub May 1: Workers' Day: What can we do to support and protect other writers, not only now, but in the future as well?

As everyone else has already mentioned, boycott any and all AI generated art, including writing. Push other people to avoid it, too.

But also, make sure you're letting your fav writers know that someone likes their stuff. Leave reviews, especially for indie writers--we're so algorithm driven right now that a couple of good reviews can make someone's career.

Really, it comes down to this: the thing that you're vocal about is the thing that you'll get. If you, as a consumer, demand human created art, tell others about your favorite artists (again, including writers), leave good reviews (or even just ratings, you don't have to write anything!), then you'll get more of that. If you don't, you won't. That simple.

#WritersCoffeeClub April 29: Share the best sentence you wrote this month.

Came back just to answer this question because, frankly, I've been giggling off and on since I wrote this.

#WritersCoffeeClub May 6: Talk about something you've written which you expected would (or expect will) divide readers.

Frankly, a thing I'm just personally tired of reading in the tragic queer life. There's enough stories out there about how miserable it is to be queer and just exist and deal with queerphobia and bigotry and hatred. I'm queer and I already live in the world where all that exists, so when I write I very rarely write about that. Like, yeah, maybe an ancient horrible evil is trying to eat your soul, but that's because your soul is tasty, not because of who you sleep with or what's in your pants.

And I know there's a significant population out there who will hate that because it's "not realistic." And to those people I say, first, I know. But sometimes we write about the world we want to see, not the world that we already occupy. And second, my sibling in Horus, it's way more realistic than the ancient oozing horror hiding inside the skin of its victims, I think if someone is willing to read the latter they're not going to be too concerned with the former.

And I know there's another population who will hate that I write queer people with happy lives because they don't want queer people to have happy lives. And to those people I would say: there's the door. Use it.

Through a series of unlikey events, I have had to determine how much Charon requires to ferry a dead soul across the River Styx.

At current market value it's about $3.39 USD.

#WritersCoffeeClub May 5: Have you ever taken inspiration from something which could have but didn't happen?

Sure. As primarily a horror writer, a lot of the scariest things start with "what if these circumstances had been a little different." I mean, then they devolve into "and also what if there was a scary monster there," but the fear primarily comes from the plausibility of the situation.

I also wrote a lot of historical fiction, but honestly those stories tend to be more true to reality--the characters are examining the historical situations around them and being affected by them, but history works out, fundamentally, the same way. That's not trying to say something about fate or predestination, it's more than the interest in historical fiction (for me) comes from how these major events shape lives and how they echo in the present, not how they might have turned out differently.

Did I skip a day? It feels like I skipped a day.

(Edited to spell the hashtag right x.x)

#WritersCoffeeClub May 3: Do you write your works localis(^z)ed to the setting or to your background? How do you decide?

To my background. When I'm writing horror, it's mostly taking place in the same geographical location that I'm in or know well anyway, and when I'm writing fantasy or sci-fi, there's not a real localization to that setting anyway, because the setting is made up. If I were to try and write like someone from a different background, I would most likely screw it up, and then it'd distract the reader, so better to write authentically in my own language than attempt to write in someone else's.

I will also say, few things are as annoying to me as a reader than trying to slog through someone attempting to emulate Ye Olde Timey English, also. Few writers in my experience actually understand Elizabethan English well enough to write in it, and most of them aren't even writing in an equivalent time period, so it makes even less sense. I have a whole rant about this.

#WritersCoffeeClub May 2: Have you ever written a character making one decision, only to later revise them choosing otherwise?

(Yes, I know what time it is, but I can drink coffee at night, too)

Sure. That's what revision and editing are for. There's been many times where, in retrospect, a character has made the wrong decision for that character. Usually it's not too bad to rewrite the decision and then just add a scene or two to get the plot back on track, but sometimes it's a fundamental decision that requires rethinking how the story goes, or changing the circumstances so that the decision was the right decision for that character.

And more than a few of my trunk stories are a decision that's wrong and I can't figure out how to fix it, including a whole ass novel that went off the rails in Chapter Two.